Davison/Vanden Hoek on County Roads – Don’t ask for money from townships.

In July members of Frontenac County Council put a stop to a comprehensive transportation plan, at a cost of over $100,000, which was proposed by County Sustainability Planner Joe Gallivan.

Gallivan was asked to come back with a more modest proposal that focussed on the arterial roads within the county that are within the jurisdiction of the individual Frontenac townships. He was also told to keep his proposal within the $40,000 cost that had been approved in the 2010 budget.

In receiving the terms of reference for that more limited roads management plan at the meeting of County Council on Wednesday August 11, at least two of the four members of the current council served notice of the limits of their support for a comprehensive county roads system.

Frontenac Islands Mayor Jim Vanden Hoek said “I’m fine with common standards, about seeking grants, etc. but I think it will be a long time before I support any kind of financial requisition from the townships for a regional roads system. In the deliverables for this project, it says ‘A vision for a Frontenac County road network’. I would prefer if it said ‘a vision for a road network in Frontenac County’. It might seem like semantics, but I am not entirely comfortable with what’s on the table at this time.”

Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski did not share Vanden Hoek’s concerns. “Any financial plan would be a long term, 20-year model,” she said.

North Frontenac Mayor Ron Maguire said the new proposal was an improvement over the earlier version. “I would expect that whatever comes of this will bring equity across the County.”

South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davision shared Vanden Hoek’s unease with the direction of the plan. “I too have concerns about where this long term plan is going because we cannot afford the roads we have now. When the county spends money a lot of it comes from my own constituents. In South Frontenac we are already looking at 18 kilometres of Road 38 that is a monster that is about to bite us.”

Joe Gallivan said that the roads management plan that he envisioned bringing forward would be rather open ended, leaving decisions about funding it to members of county council. “Our expectation is that a number of models will be brought forward,” he said.

He then took up Mayor Davison’s concern over Road 38. “It was never right for a road like 38 to be paid for by an individual council in the first place,” he said.

Gallivan got the go ahead to prepare a request for proposal for a consultant to consider a number of models for developing a regional roads system.

GIS SPECIALIST TO BE HIRED – County Council approved the creation of the full time position of Global Information Systems (GIS) specialist at a pay rate of $26 an hour. The position will be reviewed after four years.

PROVINCIAL POLICY STATEMENT – The Provincial Policy statement is a document that is used by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) to curtail some of the initiatives that municipalities in Frontenac County would like to see in their own Official Plans. Currently North, South, and Central Frontenac are all locked in stalemates over their Official Plans with the MMAH over certain kinds of development the townships would like to permit but the ministry will not accept.

Development on private laneways is a case in point. The MMAH would like to see it prohibited, based on their own interpretation of the Provincial Policy Statement, a move that both North and Central Frontenac fear will curtail their already limited growth potential.

The Provincial Policy Statement is undergoing its own review, and Frontenac County is making submissions to that review with a view towards establishing “clear and consistent policy on the development and extension of private roads.”

The County is making 10 other recommendations to the policy statement review, on topics such as limits on the location of small-scale renewable energy projects, clear policies for lake trout lakes, and others.

North Frontenac backs away from satellite medical clinic

The promise of a satellite medical clinic in Plevna in partnership with the Northbrook-based Lakeland Family Health Team is not likely to be delivered.

A their meeting on August 12, North Frontenac Council approved the following motion: “Be it resolved that the Council of the Corporation of the Township of North Frontenac, at this time, cannot financially fund the building of a health clinic in Plevna without adequate provincial funding.”

North Frontenac Council had been optimistic about the prospect of a satellite clinic at first, but a number or factors ended up weighing against them supporting one.

One of them is cost. The township is faced with a $300,000 investment in a building as well as the annual cost of administrative support. The doctor or nurse practitioner who would work out of the clinic would hopefully cover maintenance costs for the building.

Another factor is access. Only individuals who agree to be rostered at the new clinic would be eligible to use it. This would cut off all of the seasonal residents in the township, and force people currently rostered at the Northbrook and Sharbot Lake clinics to change their medical practitioner.

Last month councilors said they would canvass the idea of the township funding a new clinic with their constituents. “For the seasonal residents, the fact that they would have to pay for a clinic they would not have access to made them less likely to support it,” said Councilor Fred Perry, who has been the Council liaison person to the LakeLand Family Health Team.

Before making their decision, Council met with Doctor Tobia and Janice Powell of the Lakeland Family Health Team.

WASTE MANAGEMENT PAYBACKS –

North Frontenac Council has invested heavily in waste management over the last several years, and last week they received an administrative report on some of the revenues they are now receiving from the provincial government and Waste Diversion Ontario.

BLUE BOX FUNDING: Based on recycling levels in the pervious year, the township receives a rebate from Waste Diversion Ontario. With recycling levels increasing, that has risen from under $5,000 in 2004, to over $40,000 in 2010.

2004 - $ 4,541; 2005 - $ 5,055; 2006 - $ 7,490; 2007 - $23,696; 2008 - $37,444; 2009 - $40,340; 2010 - $41,578.

Under the new Ontario Tire Stewardship program the township received $1,222 for collecting 1,111 tires between September 2009 and June of this year.

The township received over $4,000 to pay for roll off bins for the collection of glass from Waste Diversion Ontario, and $5,000 for a Blue Box communications plan.

The township also receives money from Stewardship Ontario to cover costs related to the collection of Household Hazardous waste, up to $40,000 in 2010.

AMBULANCE BASE/FIRE STATION - The tender documents are being prepared by North Frontenac Fire Chief Steve Riddell and Frontenac County’s Land Ambulance Manager Paul Charbonneau for the combination ambulance base / fire hall in Ompah

At a special meeting on July 26, Council granted the tender for an addition to the Barrie Fire Hall to Bel-Con Design/Builders Limited.

Photo: L-r: Keigan Chadwick (Frontenac Fury player), Bazil Gillespie, Buzz Chadwick (Frontenac Fury coach), John McDougall (President Verona Lions), Judy Conway (Fund Chair), Jamie Hitchcock (Frontenac Fury player). Absent from photo Jim Lansdell (Verona Lions committee member). Photo by Louise Day

The Verona Lions Club (Donna Clarke Children’s Fund) donated $5,000 to the Frontenac Girls’ Hockey Association at the Lions’ general meeting on October 26. Over the last five to six years, the association has worked diligently in the advancement of girls’ hockey in our area. Formerly known as the Flyers, the girls now have a new name, new colours, new jerseys, new equipment and a new winning attitude: welcome The Frontenac Fury!

During the 2009 – 2010 season, the Midget C Team qualified for the Provincial Championships and represented Eastern Ontario last April. Three years ago the association also established the Atom Team (8 to 10 years old).

Money from the Verona Lions Club donation will be used to secure goalie instruction, power skating instructions, player and coach development and provide equipment at reduced cost to girls within the organization who could not play hockey without a little support.

The girls are at the Frontenac Community Area every Sunday afternoon from 2:30 to 6:30 P.M.

Parham Fair in dire straits - seeking new members to keep it afloat

It was with great sadness that John Waddingham, who recently resigned as the president of the Parham Agricultural Society, the organization that sponsors and runs the annual Parham Fair, brought the “dire situation” concerning the fate of the 120-year-old fair to council’s attention this week.

The society has recently lost a number of board and executive members, many of whom are elderly and have been running the fair for upwards of 25 years. “I apologize to all of the citizens of Central Frontenac, Waddingham said, “but the situation is now dire and unless we see people step up before our next annual general meeting on January 15, 2013, I see no way that the fair can continue”

He was visibly distressed about the situation.

“We have advertised and sent out letters asking for new members for a long time now and with very little response, we see no other alternative. It's an impossible situation.”

The positions of president and treasurer, as well as the coordinators of poultry, palace, fair grounds, marketing and fundraising need to be filled. He said that he and other former members of the society would be more than happy to train new members interested in taking over the vacancies. Anyone interested can contact him at 613-374-2728 or by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

MIII grant for Wagarville Road and bridge updates

Public Works Manager Mike Richardson asked for council’s approval to proceed with an application for $2 million in grant money that is being made available for infrastructure projects. Richardson said that if the application is successful, the grant would cover 90% of the estimated $2 million cost to pave the 7.5 km long Wagarville Road, which runs from Parham towards Tamworth and ends at McLean Road, and to repair/replace the Wagarville Road bridge. Studies, drawings and plans are in place to proceed with the project. Council gave its approval

IT department opts for Laserfiche RIO

Though it was not the lowest bid for an electronic document records management system (ERDMS), Charlene Godfrey got approval from council to acquire a Laserfic RIO system at a cost of $30,169 from MC Imaging Technologies. She said that the system offers the best value of the four RFPs that came in and will allow the IT department of the municipality to incorporate a single classification file system that will manage all electronic and paper documents in accordance with various government acts and will promote a more transparent government.

Relocation of “Fire House” Program deferred

Deputy Fire Chief Art Cowdy made a presentation to council recommending that the township accept a proposal from the fire department to contract North Frontenac Telephone Company (NFTC) to provide data management and storage services for the department. Cowdy said NFTC would help fire fighters access computers by giving them a single step data entry so that multiple fire fighters from various stations in the township could enter data simultaneously.

Charlene Godfrey said that the township's IT department was “uncomfortable not being in charge of their own data” and the township should opt for keeping the system in house.

Mayor Gutowski said that she appreciated the frustration of the fire fighters who have been asking for an improved system for a time and was disappointed to see two opposing reports regarding the topic from staff.

After further discussion the motion to go with NFTC was deferred until more information could be brought forward from staff at the next council meeting in January.

MPAC assessment shows Sharbot Lake Provincial Park devalued by 60%

Treasurer Michael McGovern brought to council's attention a report regarding the MNR Provincial Parks Assessment Loss. The report shows a devaluation in the MPAC assessment of Sharbot Lake Provincial Park from $1,255,000 to $449,000, a drop of $806,000. The devaluation results in a net loss to the municipality of $3,989 based on the 2012 tax rate. Councilor Purdon said he was curious as to why so many other parks saw an increase in value. Norm Guntensperger suggested that MPAC be made accountable and suggested that a letter be sent asking them to explain the numbers.

by Susan Irwin, Lawyer/Executive Director

When filing your income tax return for 2011 you may have an unpleasant surprise if you are a low income person expecting a lump sum tax refund.

In previous years, eligible taxpayers could count on a lump-sum refund from three provincial tax credits: the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit, Ontario Sales Tax Credit, and Northern Ontario Energy Credit. Many people with low incomes relied on getting a lump-sum tax refund to help pay for more costly items or simply to pay bills.

What you may not have realized is that over the last two years, the money for these tax credits began to be paid out in cheques issued throughout the year. The idea behind the change from a single lump sum tax refund to periodic tax credit payments was to provide people with low incomes a more stable and steady source of income over the course of the year.

If you have been getting this money throughout the year, you will no longer get these tax credits in a lump-sum refund from filing your 2011 income tax return. Of course, you may still get a refund for other tax credits or for income taxes you paid if you worked during the year.

Many people didn’t know about this change and were unpleasantly surprised to discover that no lump sum was available upon filing their return this year. It seems that many people were unpleasantly surprised, so much so, that they complained loudly to the provincial government.

It was therefore a pleasant surprise when, in response to the numerous complaints from Ontarians, the provincial government agreed to provide taxpayers with the option when filing their income tax return of choosing between getting a lump sum or getting monthly payments for provincial tax credits. However this option will not be available until next year (2013).

Remember, in order to get the tax credits paid to you at all, you must file your tax return, even if you don’t have any income to report. When you file your income tax return, you have to check the boxes on the part of the provincial tax credit form that asks if you want the income tax credits. If you want to find out how much you could get from these tax credits, you can use the government’s online tax credit calculator: www.rev.gov.on.ca/en/taxcredits/CalculatorQuestions.asp.

If you need help to file your income tax return, there are some free programs that are available to help you. Volunteers through the Canada Revenue Agency’s “Volunteer Income Tax Program” are able to prepare simple income tax returns without charge for low-income residents. You can find out more about this program by calling 1-800-959-8281 or checking online at www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/vlntr/nd-eng.html.

If you live in North or Central Frontenac townships, the Volunteer Income Tax Program is available through Northern Frontenac Community Services. Call 613-279-3151 for more information. For residents of the Township of Addington Highlands, program information is available through Land O’ Lakes Community Services at 613-336-8934.

For residents of South Frontenac Township the program is available through Southern Frontenac Community Services, 613-376-6477

This column is not intended to provide legal advice; it is just general legal information provided by volunteer local lawyers and the staff of community legal clinics and Legal Aid Ontario. The law can change. You must contact a lawyer to determine your legal rights and obligations. If you are living on a low income, you may be eligible for free legal help from Legal Aid Ontario (criminal, family or immigration) or your local community legal clinic (income security programs, employment law, tenants’ rights, or human rights). You can reach Legal Aid Ontario at 1-800-668-8258 or visit them online at www.legalaid.on.ca. Contact Rural Legal Services (613) 279-3252 or toll free 1-888-777-8916 for more information.

Photo: Provincial BMX champion Brodie Young of Parham at a race in Kingston on Oct. 22, courtesy of Kelly Young

For 16-year-old Brodie Young of Parham, winning at what you love doing is not only doable, but also repeatable!

In September Brodie, a student at Sydenham High School, won the ABA Provincial BMX Championship for 16-year-olds at Track 2000 in Milton. It is the fifth year that he has taken home the provincial trophy in his age class - no easy feat, especially considering that he has been riding for only six years. Brodie is a passionate rider who likes nothing more than getting on his bike and honing his skills. The BMX season runs from May to November and Brodie gets in numerous practice runs and races at the Woodbine track in Kingston where he runs regular races there every Wednesday. As far as taking home the provincial title five out of the six years that he has entered the event, Brodie remains humble and feels that it is not so far-fetched given how much he loves to ride. “To be successful at something you have to really love doing it and I love racing, which is why I have had the success that I have had,” he said. He rides a Redline XXL flight series model and admits to having his share of close calls on tracks where riders can reach speeds of up to 50 km/hour and where they often face no fewer than 30 jumps on a single course. “If you ever make contact with a another rider, it can be pretty dangerous and I have had a couple of bad crashes.” In his relatively short career, Brodie has suffered a mild concussion and a dislocated shoulder, which he says is kind of par for the course. “Crashing can put a definite scare into you but my advice is to ride it off, keep going, and to not think too much about the negative.”

When the season ends, as it will in November, Brodie will hit the gym, where he does power fit classes to stay in shape. Part of his BMX success, he says, has been the ongoing support he receives from his parents and younger brother, Blake, 12, who is also a BMXer. “It sure helps having your family behind you every step of the way.” Brodie's Mom, Kelly, said she, her husband, and brother Blake attend all of his races and that though the sport can be nerve-wracking because of the dangers it poses, she is pleased to have a son who has a keen interest in something that he loves to do. “He loves it and is very good at it so I'm just happy for that.” As far as pursuing the sport in the future, Brodie intends to enter the provincial championships again next year as a 17-year-old. “After that, my plans are to just keep riding for as long as I can.” Brodie's advice to anyone thinking of taking up the sport: “Practise.”

Editorial by Jeff Green

Reading through the coverage of the provincial election that will end its dreary run today, one of the sideshows has been a number of articles in both the Ottawa Citizen and the Globe and Mail about LFL&A incumbent Randy Hillier.

The Globe and Mail even dispatched a columnist, John Ibbitson, to interview Hillier supporters in Carleton Place and Hopetown. The resulting article “Meet Hudak's booming - but minimized - voice of rural Ontario” poses and then rejects the idea that a comparison can be drawn between Randy Hillier and Lanark Landowner supporters and the Tea Party movement in the United States.

Here is an excerpt from that article that caught my attention.

“The truth is, there is no discernible Tea Party within Ontario politics. There is only a dwindling rural population 'who have been bypassed by the urbanization of Ontario,' observes Jonathan Malloy, a political scientist at Ottawa’s Carleton University.

“Some within it embrace a 'rural populism' that is 'suspicious of the urban experts who know what’s best for us,' he believes.”

A retired couple from Hopetown and a sawmill owner in Lanark Highlands were interviewed as well, and they dutifully said that Mr. Hillier “tells it like it is” unlike the “citiots” who are migrating to Eastern Ontario from places like Ottawa and Ontario.

The column also talks about Randy Hillier's disdain for “the excesses of environmentalism, multiculturalism, publicly-funded health care and the like”.

As long as Hillier sticks to talking about urban indifference to rural reality and mindless bureaucratic interference in rural life, he represents a large constituency in Eastern Ontario. It is when he sways into ideological territory that he loses a number of us.

Back in 2005, the ideological side of Mr. Hillier and the Lanark Landowners movement was identified in this newspaper.

At that time the founding statement of the Landowners was posted on their website, and included the following - “Using taxpayers’ dollars, our governments support and promote Quebec, Native, Arts, Homosexual, Urban and Multi cultures. However when it comes to the independent, peaceful rural culture in Canada, government support is stifling, suffocating and controlling.”

All of this, and Randy Hillier's subsequent actions, have formed a major part of Liberal candidate Bill MacDonald’s campaign message, which is only fair since just about everything Randy Hillier does is on the public record. MacDonald has called Hillier an “embarrassment”.

But Bill Macdonald is a political opponent of Randy Hillier’s and is trying to win an election.

Mr. Ibbitson is a commentator however, and by focusing on Hillier and his supporters’ ideological bent and ignoring completely any consideration of the real issues that are faced in Eastern Ontario, he effectively writes off the people who continually struggle to keep their families fed and their communities alive in this region.

And there are real issues in this region that are worth fighting for.

The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation did indeed decide that sugar shacks should be taxed as industrial operations.

It is in the interest of urban Ontario that farms and forests thrive, but it is the rural ratepayers who foot the entire bill to keep farm and managed forest tax rates low.

Based on the Provincial Policy Statement, which favours an urban model of housing development, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs is forcing restrictions on new housing developments in rural municipalities that will further erode the potential for growth.

The OPP has been permitted to continually downgrade its services to our regions while increasing costs, and ambulance service remains a touchy issue.

Whoever wins the provincial election tonight will inherit a set of grievances in rural Ontario.

The urbanization of Ontario was not created by any government; it is a fact of life. But governments have indeed placed bureaucratic restrictions in place over the past 10 to 15 years that have hit smaller and poorer communities hard. Many of these have been motivated not by any plan that is geared to fostering strong rural development, but by institutional thinking and fear of financial liability. The Safe Drinking Water Act is a prime example of this kind of legislation.

Whether people arrived in eastern Ontario 10 years ago, or 20, or come from families that have lived in rural Ontario for 100 or 1,000 years, we all have a real interest in the future of our region and we look to government and to our urban neighbours for support and respect.

We will find out tonight if Randy Hillier will continue to be the one who is charged with bringing our concerns to Queen's Park.

Whether he is or not, we need governments to take those concerns seriously, because we will not simply fade away, as some urban newspaper columnists are predicting.

Photo: Courtesy Janet Revell.

In an effort to bring to life the world of provincial politics in Canada, Prince Charles Public School teacher Janet Revell and her grade 5/6 students invited local candidates to their classroom. This is the second year that Revell has brought the Student Vote program to the school in an effort to bring to life what otherwise might be a rather dry and abstract part of the grade five curriculum. On Monday and Tuesday, September 26 & 27, Green Party candidate Nancy Matte, Liberal candidate Bill MacDonald and NDP candidate Dave Parkhill each visited the school. They presented their platforms and took questions from the students. Based on what they heard, the students then chose to represent one of the candidates and took their platforms to other students in the school in preparation for the student vote.

Revell feels that that the best way to create an awareness of provincial politics in students is to get them involved. “The students were thrilled to meet the candidates and I had the sense that they viewed the candidates who came as celebrities. The enthusiasm the candidates showed really rubbed off on the students and definitely provided them with a deeper understanding of the issues and the entire voting process”, she said.

Her students asked a series of questions to each candidate, such as: Why did you go into politics? Will you be raising taxes? How will your party improve education, health care and help to promote a healthy environment? Two groups of students from the class, each representing one of the four candidates, then took what they learned and presented it to the other classrooms in the school. On October 4 the students then cast their votes in a mock poll, complete with two scrutineers, a poll officer and a deputy officer. The Student Vote program has gained a foothold in many local area schools and student polls also took at Land O' Lakes PS in Mountain Grove and at Sharbot Lake Public School.

Green, Nancy Matte

Liberal, Bill MacDonald

New Democratic Party,  Dave Parkhill

Progressive Conservative, Randy Hillier

Green

Nancy Matte – In it for the long run

Nancy Matte says that bad policies last for a long time, so politicians need to look at the big picture before making decisions.

“I'll give you an example,” she said. “The school boards decided to ban junk food from school cafeterias, which sounded like a good idea, but you know what happened? It created a black market for junk food. Students are bringing cases of pop to school and selling it from their lockers, which is pretty clever of them, but this isn't the outcome that the school boards were looking for,” she said.

The solution she proposes is to work towards providing healthy, local food choices in schools at better prices by expanding programs like the Good Food Box, which provides a selection of vegetables and fruits for a good price.

“The students are telling me that they can't afford the healthy choices in the schools, so we need to get the farmers involved. Everything needs to be looked at together, not in isolation.”

Matte says that the Green Party is very much committed to making changes by reallocating resources, not by increasing budgets in major service areas such as education and healthcare.

“Education savings can be found by eliminating the standardized testing agency, the EQAO (Education Quality Assurance Organization) and its $30 million annual budget, as well as related agencies that have sprung up along with it for a total savings of $100 million.”

Similarly, the Local Health Health Integration Networks (LHINS) that oversee much of the heath care in the province, are something she says is “a good theoretical concept that somehow lost its way.”

For Nancy Matte, the current election campaign has been a learning experience par excellence.

“Every day, at every meeting, at every door, I've learned more and more,” she said.

This is Matte's first political experience and she said she considers herself a long-term candidate, and is casting her eye towards future elections.

She graduated from the University of Ottawa in the early '90s, with a Bachelor of Science in Sociology with a focus on public policy and public administration. The mother of three daughters, she has been a stay at home mom for 14 years, and she has also worked with her husband on a small, home-based business since 2001. With her youngest child entering full-time schooling this fall, she began casting around for a job opportunity this past summer, and when politics and the Green Party came calling she answered.

“I have lots of experience behind me, with three long-time party members running my campaign” she said, “I have never done any public speaking before, but people have been very encouraging Some of the divisiveness at all-candidates’ meetings has thrown me off a bit, but what I say is that I don't want to keep fighting about what went wrong in the past; I want to talk instead about what can be done in the future.”

It is the message of the Green Party, as captured in the five-point plan that the party is promoting with the “It's Time” publication, that Nancy Matte turns to at every opportunity.

“Whenever I see someone pick up the brochure I feel that one other person is being brought to our message, and that in itself is encouraging,” she said.

The five-point Green Party Plan includes: Creating jobs for a 21st century economy; harnessing safe, affordable energy to power communities; feeding communities by championing stronger local farms; providing access to quality, sustainable healthcare close to home; and developing government that works for people.

This all must be done, according to Nancy Matte, without increasing department budgets.

“It is not sustainable to increase budgets and raise taxes or go further into debt. We must spend smarter and not make decisions about one department or one service in isolation. Government needs to take a holistic approach.”

Liberal

Bill MacDonald – Better representation

Bill MacDonald is no stranger to multi-tasking. He spent 18 years in municipal politics, including three terms as mayor of Central Frontenac Township and two one-year stints as warden of Frontenac County. During all those years he continued to run his logging business and an educational supply business as well.

When he was not re-elected in the 2006 municipal election in Central Frontenac he barely missed a beat. He jumped into the Liberal riding association in LFL&A and sought the nomination five months later, a contest he narrowly lost to Ian Wilson.

That was in December of last year, and MacDonald has been on the campaign trail ever since, knocking on doors across the riding throughout the summer and into the writ period.

“The issues that people have been talking to me about at their doors have still been pretty local, but one big difference between provincial and municipal politics is the number of groups and organizations that have a stake in provincial politics,” he said.

One of the themes that he has returned to often during this campaign has been his contention that for the last four years there has been a lack representation at Queen's Park from Mr. Hillier, specifically as far as bringing provincial money to projects in the riding is concerned.

“To me, this election is all about representation,” he said. “I think that, particularly in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties, that has been sorely lacking. We haven't had a voice speaking to the provincial table. The Liberal government has been spending money on infrastructure, and we need an MPP who is willing to go to bat for projects in the riding. We have the worst section of Highway 7 in the entire province running through our riding, and we need an MPP who is going to work hard on that.”

He also sees opportunities for the riding that could come from the Green Energy Act, should the Liberal Party be returned to power on October 6.

“I've seen solar panels everywhere as I drive around he riding, that is economic activity in our riding that would not have happened if it weren't for the Green Energy Act. And there are more opportunities. But someone would have to sit down with the Minister of Energy, Brad Duguid, to talk about the capacity in Smiths Falls and Napanee to put in manufacturing plants for solar inverters or other industrial possibilities related to Green Energy. Instead of working to create jobs in the riding, Randy Hillier voted against every job creation initiative for the entire four years he has been the LFLA MPP,” he said.

MacDonald also believes that provincial policies can and should be applied differently in different parts of the province, which is something he pushed in his municipal career, both as part of the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus and through direct contact with provincial politicians.

“I remember sitting down with Leona Dombrowsky at an AMO [Association of Municipalities of Ontario] meeting when she was Minister of the Environment. She asked me about the Clean Water Act and rural Ontario, and I told her we need different rules for different parts of the province, and the legislation was altered.”

Bill MacDonald stands by the Liberal Party record in rural Ontario and in the changes that have been made to the education system.

“When the Liberals came to power in 2003, education was a mess. Now, high school graduation is up to 80%, and we are ranked in the top ten in the entire world,” he said. “I want to be the MPP for this riding to continue making that kind of progress” he said.

New Democratic Party

Dave Parkhill – Committed to social services

Dave Parkhill comes to the LFL&A election with pretty good credentials for an NDP candidate. He is the chief steward in the union local of the Frontenac County Paramedics; is a vice chair of the regional OPSEU labour council; and has worked with the Canadian Labour Congress on their pension campaign. As the father of two children with autism spectrum disorder he became involved with health, education and social services in Kingston, first as a parent seeking services for his children, and later as an advocate for others. He also became involved as a volunteer board member at a number of agencies, including Pathways for Children and Youth, Community Living Kingston, and Extend -a-Family.

In his professional life as a full time paramedic, he has a detailed insider’s view of how at least one segment of health services operates.

When the idea of running for the NDP in LFL&A was presented to him, he was ready and willing to give it shot.

“Since I was in my mid-20s it's always been in the back of my mind that I'd like to run. I got a call on a Saturday asking if I would consider running, and the next day I met with some people from the association. It was an easy decision for me. One thing I would say, however, is that it would be better in the future to have more lead time before an election,” he said.

That being said, Dave Parkhill said he is having a great time travelling the riding and meeting people during the campaign.

“I'm really surprised at the folks who are feeling left behind in one way or another, and I'm happy to bring their issues to the campaign,” he said.

One of the aspects of the NDP platform that he feels strongly about is the commitment to cut out the Local Health Integration Network, a policy that is shared by the Progressive Conservative Party.

“But our rationale is a bit different. My problem with the LHINs in particular is that they are basically a buffer level of bureaucracy for the government between the Ministry of Health and local providers. We can cut out layers of red tape and make government directly accountable for the services they are funding. The regional offices of the Ministry of Health are still there.”

He also feels that the downloading of provincial services to municipalities, which he witnessed first hand in his professional life as a paramedic based at Parham and Ompah for 21 years, is a particular hardship for Eastern Ontario.

“Eastern Ontario was really hit when the downloading of roads and other services took place under the Conservatives. It's one thing for a road with hundreds of houses per kilometre to be downloaded, and a whole other story for one with five houses per kilometre to be downloaded. The cost per person is much, much higher, and that pushes property taxes up and service levels down,” he said. “And when it comes to ambulance, you end up with situations like the one in Denbigh, where county budgets take precedence over provincially mandated services.”

Ultimately, issues, such as those addressed at a round table meeting with social service providers in Carleton Place as part of the election campaign, are the kind that motivate Dave Parkhill most directly.

“It is stuff that I care about so deeply,” he said. “There were people there who are working to alleviate violence against women; there were addiction services, poverty action groups, and many others. That was exactly what I want to be doing; that's why I got into politics. We have poverty in this riding, I've seen it for years as a paramedic and it is time we talked about as part of the political process.”

Progressive Conservative

Randy Hillier – Getting government off our back

While other candidates talk a lot about what their party would do for you if elected, Randy Hillier has been pushing his own party to do less. One of the biggest promises that he makes is that a Conservative government will take a good hard look at the work of boards and agencies under its control, and at the regulations those boards and agencies enforce.

“Those that work for Ontarians, we will keep,” he said, “those that need fixing, we will fix, and those that are no good, not in the interest of Ontarians, we will eliminate.”

Another commitment that he makes is to continue fighting for property rights.

“If the government hinders you in the use of your land, for environmental reasons, or to save a shrike or some other endangered species, there should be full compensation paid.”

These kinds of policies are ones that Randy Hillier was expounding as a political activist with the Lanark Landowners Association before he entered provincial politics in 2006, and he has been able to inject a number of them into the Conservative Party platform for this election.

If the party strays too far from policies that Hillier considers are in the interest of the residents of LFL&A, he said he would side with his constituents.

“I represents the citizens of Lanark, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington to the government, not the other way around. If there is a conflict, I will side with the citizens, every time,” he said.

That being said, Hillier also said he is “very confident and supportive of Tim Hudak's leadership of the party.”

He does not have much confidence in the Liberal government, however, and was ejected from the house three times over the last four years for defying parliamentary protocol, once for 10 days when he staged a sit-in to protest the adoption of the harmonized sales tax.

He is particularly critical of the current regime’s policies in regards to rural Ontario.

“The Liberal government has done an exceptionally poor job of recognizing the problems of rural Ontario, and has done a poor job with our economy. All of the provinces faced the recession but only Ontario slipped into the status of a have-not province, needing compensation from places like Newfoundland and Saskatchewan,” he said.

Referring to the “Anatomy of Risk”, a study published in 2003 that foresaw a rapid decline in rural Ontario communities, particularly those located 100 kilometres or more from major urban centres, Hillier says that Liberal government initiatives such as the Smart Growth Act, the Provincial Policy statement and the Clean Water Act “have the fingerprints of the report all over them; they seek to turn rural Ontario into a park.”

“The Anatomy of Risk is based on a false premise,” he added. “Where are all the resources that we harvest to bring in wealth? They are not in the cities, but in rural Ontario.”

According to Randy Hillier, a combination of high-energy prices and unnecessary regulations have killed productive sectors of the rural economy, with a case in point being the forestry industry.

“Two things that have hindered that industry most have been electricity costs and the uncertainty of timber allocations, and both of those can be fixed,” he said.

“Our energy policy should be an economic policy, instead of a social experiment policy, as it is now. Businesses are closing or not expanding because of energy costs, particularly electricity costs that rose as the result of the misguided Green Energy Act.”

In terms of his work in the local riding, Hillier said that his office has been able to represent a number of local business owners who have faced hurdles coming from the province.

“That's a major part of a MPP’s job,” he said.

In terms of government investments in the riding for things like road projects, hospitals and schools, he said, “I do my best but I don’t have the decision-making authority to decide what projects get funded. Our biggest obstacle is the ingrained view that there are more votes in urban Ontario than rural Ontario. My experience tells me that this government is only motivated by money or embarrassment.”

Megan Hughes toils quietly most of the time in her office at the Child Centre in Sharbot Lake.

She spends her working days digging into statistical information, and produces reports on the social well-being of children and families in Frontenac, Lennox and Addington and Hastings Counties. The reports are used by community planners, social service agencies and government officials.

Hughes’ job title is Data Analysis Co-ordinator (DAC) for the Ontario Early Years Centre for the former provincial riding of Hastings Frontenac Lennox and Addington. Earlier this year, along with fellow DACs from Kingston and other Eastern Ontario regions, she produced a pair of reports. One is about the social risks faced by youth in Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties. It provides information about specific regions, such as Portland and Bedford Districts, and Central and North Frontenac.

The other report is a more general report about health indicators, ranging from birth weight, body mass index, diet, etc. in South eastern Ontario as compared to the province as a whole.

In mid-August Hughes presented her reports to Frontenac County, partly so they know how their communities are doing, and partly to let county council members know that she is a resource that is available to them.

The community profiles made use of 2006 census data, and they present some interesting information about the number of children who, based on socio-economic indicators, face a higher than average risk of running into difficulties in school or in the community. It also looks at the number of children in each community who had a high score on a scale called a multiple challenges index. The index looks at 16 different indicators in categories such as physical health and well-being, social knowledge and competence, emotional health, language and cognitive development, and communications skills. Any child who scores poorly in 9 of the 16 categories is deemed to be facing multiple challenges.

To take one community as an example, Portland and Bedford Districts of South Frontenac, the social risk indicator defines the community as facing a “somewhat low risk” based on the fact that the unemployment rate is lower than the regional and provincial average (3.3% as compared to 4.2% in the southeast region and 4.9% in the province) the incidence of low income is well below the provincial average and the number of tenant households spending more than 30% of their income on housing is lower than the regional and provincial average.

However, when looking at children facing multiple challenges, Portland and Bedford have the highest percentage of vulnerable children in the Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington region. Not surprisingly then, the standardised testing results for grade 3 and 6 students from Portland and Bedford are well below the provincial average.

A look at Central Frontenac reveals a moderate risk on the social risk index, and again a high number of children facing multiple risks.

The picture in North Frontenac is similar to Central, but North Frontenac does face a higher unemployment rate (6.3%) than the provincial average (4.9%) and a very high percentage of renters who pay over 30% of their income for rent, 55% as compared to the provincial average of 44.3%.

“It is important to look at both sides of the data, the positive and the negative. Good planning requires evidence,” said Megan Hughes.

County Councilor John McDougall (from South Frontenac) said, “We see this information, but what about the response?”

“There are a number of planning tables, including the Early Years Advisory Committee, Success by Six and others, and the County Deputy Clerk Susan Beckel sits on all of them. They devise programs to help children in all these regions. Northern Frontenac Community Services, as the Early Years Centre, provides programs for children and families throughout the region,” said Hughes.

“One of the challenges we face as a county in dealing with this kind of information relates to the political structure. Children and youth services are the purview of the City of Kingston. There are communications challenges which make some of us at the county feel disconnected from what is going on in these areas,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Janet Gutowski. “We should do something about that.”

“As I said before, I am available to members of county council who are looking for information about the health and well being of children and youth in Frontenac County,” said Megan Hughes.